“That’s what happens when blood flow is obstructed. If it’s in the heart, it’s a heart attack.” Thus, in the famous television series Dr. Housethe unconventional doctor Gregory House describes the heart attack. Gino Stellinia taxi driver from Padua, has seen all the episodes, but also many documentaries and medical programmes.
«I recognized the symptoms when, from the rearview mirror, he couldn’t move his left hand well and had pain in the sternal region. He got on at the Padua station and asked me to go to Abano Terme. Something was already wrong there: he had practically fallen into the car.” A couple of curves and Stellini realizes that the symptoms are all there. «I finish my twelve-hour shift at 5.30pm and go home to have dinner with my wife. Then we watch television: I have this passion for documentaries and medicine, there is always something for me, on the national or local networks. So that day I understood that there was no time to waste.”
The customer protests because he wants to go to Abano. In Padua there is a coronary center of excellence, and the gentleman, with a clear Neapolitan accent, can hardly stand it anymore when he gets to the emergency room. Gino leaves him with the nurses and then resumes his work “in the square”.
«I have been driving a taxi for 46 years: frost, heat, rain, wind, congested traffic, road blocks. When I started I had a Fiat Ritmo without heating, just the fan that pushed the heat from the engine into the cabin. Today there are some more conveniences, there are apps for calling, our exchange notifies us of the customer, but you always have to be “in the square””.
A few days later, on February 2nd, a taxi driver picks up a customer who has just been discharged from hospital. He makes a curious request. «Look, a few days ago I was accompanied to the emergency room by one of your colleagues. He saved my life: can you thank me for that?”. This is how Gino’s story came out. The president of the Radiotaxi Cooperative of Padua, Nicola Dal Corsospread the news; if it had been for Gino, no one would have known anything: he, as usual, was “in the square” working.
“It’s not that unusual for us to intervene urgently,” explains Dal Corso. «Who has to rush home because their child has returned from school early and is outside the door, the neighbor who warns that the house is flooded, the sudden train or bus strike and someone who has to rush to an appointment, the pregnant lady who feels ill on the street and has to rush to the hospital. It happens that we make real rescues, like when one of our associates dived into the Bacchiglione to save a woman who was attempting suicide.”
Gino’s passion for medicine and intuition, once again, were invaluable. «A few years ago I spotted a lump on my wife almost by chance. I can’t forget that period: an operation was necessary, long treatments, but in the end she came out of it. How many programs I have seen on prevention, it has really helped.”
Still in a taxi after 46 years of work. Why? «I got my license from my father-in-law when I was very young. The passion was born immediately: you are free, you work outdoors, you travel through a wonderful city like Padua. The city of the nameless Saint: no one says the Basilica of Sant’Antonio, everyone says “the Saint”; the city without grass, because Piazza delle Erbe doesn’t even have a blade of grass; the city of bars without doors, not anymore, but until a few years ago, even in the middle of the night, at 3 or 4, you could go to Caffè Pedrocchi, it never closed, for us taxi drivers a refreshment from long nights. And then, to tell the truth, I also have a small commitment to carry out: my wife has had hip surgery and we have to go through careful and somewhat expensive rehabilitation. Let’s get over this hurdle again and then I’ll stop.” Gino, more precisely the knight of work Gino Stellini (award received four years ago), continues his 12 hours a day “in the square”. He shares shifts with 150 colleagues from the Radiotaxi Cooperative. Every month he is entitled to five days of rest.
«You have to understand this job, love it, you have to be professional in your driving, always explain the route to the customer, but above all know how to listen. THEFor some years our job has been somewhat complicated by the economic crisis”, comments Dal Corso, «people have less availability. Traffic is chaotic: work on trams is underway in Padua. There’s a bit of rudeness going around after Covid. But we are here. Even in this case we can see that we are a bit like sentinels in the city. In the past there was a proposal to equip taxis with defibrillators. We are always available to collaborate. I believe that public institutions can enhance this role of ours.”
Gino hopes that gentleman will show up. «I don’t want any special thanks. I want to get to know him, see how he is. I’m here: just a phone call and we’ll have a Spritz together, perhaps at the historic Caffè Pedrocchi.”
